A Community of Misfits...I l Like It.

Over the last day or so we've been arguing over which generation sucks more. But reading this particular comment from Pluto's Republic got me to thinking....

You will never pass for a Boomer, no matter how hard you try.

@gulfgal98

You're nothing like them. You would never fit in. So why try to identify as one?

We don't have any Boomers at c99. Not a single one. You can find plenty of them in DC.

Boomer is not an age. It's the distillation of an attitude of a culture that develops when people are raised together and experience the same events, and even intermarry, while their brains are still forming. They end up with a recognizable consensus of reinforced attitudes, forged by the times they live through.

There are always misfits in each generation. We have a lot of those here.

And I don't really fit into my generation of Millennials because I don't waste my time arguing over which marginalized group supposedly ruined Star Wars or Star Trek more. I didn't waste my time drinking myself stupid as a teenager in the late 90s and early 2000s and I never really got in anywhere as far as the tech industry goes despite my best efforts.

I was never really taken with the Libertarian Ron Paul and Austrian School craze that swept the interwebz in the run up to the 2008 election. I ended up voting for Ralph Nader that year and would do it again. And last year I refused to trade values for electability leading to my banishment from OrangeState.

So I guess right now the biggest challenge we face is overcoming bullshit divides egged on by the capitalist class. I know I've been guilty of engaging in the bullshit more than a few times and I do wish it would stop. Identities are bullshit. Let's all be misfits instead.

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SnappleBC's picture

The identities TPTB hand us to choose from are bullshit... sure. But you know what identity is meaningful to me? I'm a part of the 99%. I have no yachts. I don't own a single vacation home anywhere. I'm 53 and struggling to find employment as I watch what we managed to save for retirement dwindle down.

I identify as a worker rather than a plutocrat. I think that identity is perhaps the only meaningful one in the current world.

*** edited to add ***
Even though this isn't DKOS I'd still like to clarify something. I fully recognize that in the game of class warfare minorities get screwed in extra special ways. I also recognized embedded racism towards blacks in particular whose roots run deep in our society and I'm in favor of smart reparations. So yes, I think all the "-isms" are important. I just believe we won't win ANY of the "-isms" until the 99% realizes we are all on the same team. Rest assured that my plans for "economic justice" start at the bottom of the food chain not the middle. Also rest assured that economic justice isn't the only kind of justice I'm interested in. But you have to admit, being able to feed and clothe your family is pretty important. It's not enough but it is crucial.

I say "labor" is the only identity that matters more as a strategic statement than a literal one. It's the first step that needs to happen.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

earthling1's picture

@SnappleBC
Labor is the defining characteristic for myself also. But not all labor.
Labor that builds something (carpenter, machinist), or creates something (artist, farmer),or works something (ditchdigger,chef,maid) are different than someone who moves money around digitally, or gives speeches, sermons. Or even one who makes a living as a professional golfer or gambler.
I would have to separate the classes by wealth.
Those who have enough and those who don't.
And even though I fall into the class who have enough, I still pull for those who do not. Because I remember the days when I didn't.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Bisbonian's picture

@earthling1 , but I am labor...paid by the hour. I am a very highly paid bus driver, in a Union. So I share the excess when I can, and volunteer some of my free time. If I lost my job, I would soon run out of both. I am firmly cemented into the 99%.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

earthling1's picture

@Bisbonian @Bisbonian
Union construction worker, back when a union job was a first class ticket to the middle class.
Now we know what happened to the middle class.
No unions. No middle class.
America is a union. We pay taxes to support this union. We elect a president, vice president, and someone to count the dues and pay the bills of the union.
Just like the US Chambers of Commerce, a union of Corporations.
Or ALEC. Or the AMA (doctors), NRA (arms manufacturer).
But labor unions are the only one under attack by all the other unions.
Funny that.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

riverlover's picture

@earthling1 It does help to have learned about feudalism in HS. At the time I went through it was considered archaic. We as a new founding culture imported baggage from our separate countries of origin.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

lotlizard's picture

@riverlover  
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/king-abdullah-dead-...

Turning society over to the whims of billonaires is just bringing it all back home.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@earthling1

Union construction worker, back when a union job was a first class ticket to the middle class.
Now we know what happened to the middle class.
No unions. No middle class.

Sad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

CB's picture

@thanatokephaloides
America lost most of the industries and jobs that Unions were rooted in. They went to China along with the technical expertise. China put it on steroids. America now has to import Chinese expertise.

Remember when, just 4-5 decades ago, the US was first in the world in applied technology and manufacturing? I don't think the average American realizes how far back the country has fallen and how extremely difficult it will be to catch up. The country now has to buy rail cars from China. Will airplanes be next?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49c4kl4N1pw]

While America has been filling coffins, China has been filling coffers.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@CB

There is another factor that ran concurrent to that. America lost most of the industries and jobs that Unions were rooted in. They went to China along with the technical expertise. China put it on steroids. America now has to import Chinese expertise.

Those American industries were destroyed specifically to eliminate their Unions and the political strength they represented. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!

Remember when, just 4-5 decades ago, the US was first in the world in applied technology and manufacturing?

I do. I participated in a small taste of it, too. Never got to a Union job, but at least I knew what a Union was.....

NO nation can build a long-term prosperous economy on prolonged warfare (Sun Tzu) or on F.I.R.E. (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate). And guess how the US now bases its economy?

The country now has to buy rail cars from China. Will airplanes be next?

While America has been filling coffins, China has been filling coffers.

Gak! Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

mimi's picture

where I go. Actually sometimes I rather would like to fit in. But whatever I do or say, it doesn't
work.

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CB's picture

@mimi

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riverlover's picture

who seem to be. Now I'll just stay as a hermit in the woods. 54 yesterday and 3" of snow on sullied ground today. Barren yesterday. Sun again and nearing 40 F. We all have sniffles and some have the everlasting cough. No sleep for three nights; it's good that I read and am not too frustrated.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

It's not my fault all those other people are weird.
/n.

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into round holes. Difficult to pigeon hole independent types. Like herding cats or butterflies. Not so much misfits as label free generic thinkers. Novel thinking can not be bottled and marketed.

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its the labels. Labels make it too easy to scapegoat. And by using them, we buy into our owner's mind set. We use their tools to divide ourselves. I know I'm guilty with my hate of Repugnants. Must learn to stop that. It's not easy, it goes against everything we've been taught so very well.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

SnappleBC's picture

@lizzyh7

Hating on half the people who are also caught up in the same bait ball as you is unwise. There are lots of areas myself and Republicans agree on. I try to work those areas and suggest that we can get back to bickering about bathrooms once we've regained control of our own government.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Pricknick's picture

I fit in many places and likely go unnoticed.
Suits me fine.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick gets us thru many prickly circumstances. Have observed those with the skill to reflect or "shine on" bad vibes. It's not really about fitting in so much as avoiding detection. The invisible hand steering progress.

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Mark from Queens's picture

“It’s the unpleasantness of the system that keeps me out. I’d rather be in, in a good system. That’s where my discontent comes from: being forced to choose to stay outside.”

(George Carlin, "Napalm and Silly Putty.")

The Sage almost always speaks for me.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Alligator Ed's picture

Amazing as it is, I fit in just fine here. Now, please pardon me while I look for lunch.

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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweeBM0qyYc]

It was always kind of a mixed message for me. Sometimes sad, other times liberating.
Take care.

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